Establishing links between drug registers and essential medicines lists

Access to essential medicines is still suboptimal in many countries. Recent studies examining the registration of medicines at the country level show that a considerable proportion of essential medicines do not have any corresponding products registered for use at the country level and therefore cannot be available at all times. Conversely, many non-essential medicines are registered by regulatory authorities for local markets, potentially facilitating inappropriate drug use and antimicrobial resistance. Addressing this public health gap requires linking the data on national drug registers with national essential medicines lists. Achieving this linkage will necessitate the development of common data variables and standards for both drug registers and essential medicines lists. This linkage would provide medicines regulators and health policy-makers with information on the gaps in the registration of essential medicines and allow them to take steps to prioritize registration of these medicines. This approach would improve availability of essential medicines for public health priorities and prevent over-registration of unnecessary medicines.